Report: Disability Registrations Surge at Elite US Universities

Are expanded protections helping more students succeed, or are elite students gaming the system for unfair advantages?

Published 6 days ago

Report: Disability Registrations Surge at Elite US Universities

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Above: The Harvard University campus in Boston, Massachusetts, on May 27, 2025. Image credit: Rick Friedman/AFP/Getty Images

The Spin

Pro-establishment narrative

The steep rise in disability registrations at elite universities may reflect overdue recognition and destigmatization of mental-health, learning and neurodivergent conditions. Institutes like Stanford are making it easier for students to declare genuine issues — anxiety, ADHD or depression — that previously went unacknowledged or untreated. For many, accommodations such as extended test time or housing adjustments are vital for equitable academic access in high-pressure environments. What critics call an "explosion" of claims may be a long-overdue correction to systemic neglect of invisible disabilities.

Laura McKenna, PhD on X Stanford

Establishment-critical narrative

The surge in disability registrations at elite U.S. universities reflects systemic gaming rather than a genuine rise in impairment. Elite universities have created perverse incentives where claiming disability status brings tangible benefits, leading to absurd outcomes. Most of these diagnoses are for mental-health or learning issues — conditions that are so loosely defined they allow affluent students to secure extended exam time and other advantages. What was once a necessary protection has morphed into a system so liberally applied that it threatens to declare half the student body cognitively impaired.

Derek Thompson on X

M.A. Rothman on X

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